R Subramanian, the founder of the retail chain Subhiksha and an IIT alumnus with an IIM degree, has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term for defrauding investors. According to the court judgement of November 20, 2023, renowned engineer Subramanian of IIT Madras, received a conviction from a special court in Chennai of defrauding hundreds of investors and using different shell firms to redirect their assets.
In accordance with the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act (TNPID Act), the court convicted Subramanian and his accomplices guilty. The ruling states that Subramanian and others collected deposits through four programs—Prime Invest, Asset Backed Security Bond, Liquid Plus, and Safety Plus—that were sponsored by A1 M/s. Viswapriya India Ltd. accused deceived depositors into making investments in the financial institution. When the money matured, they deceived depositors once more into reinvesting it in new schemes that offered enormous short-term gains. The accused failed the depositors by neglecting to return the matured sum.
Viswapriya was Subramanian's first venture into business, founded as a financial services company in May 1991. In 1997, he went on to launch Subhiksha. Many investors were drawn to Viswapriya's assortment of schemes, and as of right now, 587 of the impacted investors have not received their money back. Subramanian acknowledged that he has not voluntarily deposited any money for the previous ten years and that he has defaulted on over Rs 137 crore to depositors across all programmes.
Subramanian has been fined Rs 8.92 crore by the court, while the convicted organisations have been fined Rs 191.98 crore. Of this amount, Rs 180 crore is set up for depositor compensation. As required by the court's decision, the compensation money must be transferred to an authorised entity, which will then disburse them after verifying the affected investors' documentation.
